Rancher Tex Blaine and his pals decide to give skinflint Dan Allen, owner of the Custer Merchantile Company, a fright by kidnapping him and running him out of town. At Allen's ranch, Tex lassos Allen's visiting niece, Mary Ann Perkins, by mistake and apologizes by proposing marriage. Tex leaves town with the Custer sheriff in hot pursuit but doesn't know the sheriff only wants to give him a letter. Tex is joined by the self-proclaimed trouble-seeking trouble busters Skinny Cassidy and Windy Wallace and the three ride to Placerville, where Big Bill Jarvis is drunkenly breaking up the saloon. Tex whips Jarvis and then the impressed Jarvis gives him a job on the Bar-X ranch. Jarvis is after an oil strip on the adjoining Bar-Y ranch where Skinny and Windy have secured jobs and tell Tex that the ranch is owned by Mary Ann. Since the strip is up for grabs, Tex reaches it first and stakes a claim much to the dismay of Mary Ann and her cousin Jim Perkins. The sheriff catches up with Tex and the letter informs him he has inherited the Bar-X.Mary Ann and Jim discover that Tex, their new neighbor, has filed the strip claim in her name.
—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>